by Kate O'Hearn
Pegasus whinnied, and Emily gasped.
“They’ve all been captured by the CRU.” She looked desperately to Pegasus. “How? How did they know about Stella or Agent B? I can understand about Earl and Frankie, but not them. They were from the other time line.”
Pegasus nickered, and Urania nodded. “Pegasus also wants to know why they are being held. That young girl could not know anything useful to the CRU. Why are they holding her?”
Emily focused on the water again. “Take us back out of the building.”
The image seemed to repeat the same process as it backed out of the cells, down the corridors, up the elevator shaft, through the public concourse, and out onto the street. “Back up farther, above the city. Where is this?”
The water obeyed, and the image seemed to show them lifting off the ground. They rose above Charing Cross Station and higher into the sky.
“Stop there,” Emily called again. The skyline was completely unfamiliar to her. There was a winding river that seemed to split the city in two. Along the edge of the river, not far from Charing Cross, her eyes landed on a familiar building. She had seen it on television and in pictures many times before. “Move slowly toward the river,” she said to the water. “I think that’s the tower of Big Ben. Take us there.” The image shifted and appeared to fly over the buildings. It stopped and hovered above a large, distinctive clock tower rising over a long, ancient building that looked almost gothic with all its pointed spires. “They’re in England,” Emily mused aloud. “Somehow, Earl, Frankie, and Stella have been taken to London, England.”
2
AFTER LEAVING URANIA AT THE top of Mount Helicon, Emily and Pegasus made their way back to Tom and Alexis’s cave. They landed outside, and Emily climbed down from Pegasus.
“I just don’t understand how could they know about Stella or Agent B.”
Pegasus nickered and pawed the ground. He turned and stared at her. The moment their eyes locked, their connection let Emily see the image of the two of them flying through the Solar Stream.
“You’re saying we have to go there to help them?”
When Pegasus nodded, Emily agreed. “I was thinking the same thing. But, Pegs, we both know there’s no way Jupiter would let us go. Or Dad either. Even though Jupiter and a few others here remember them, we both know they’ll say I don’t have the powers to save them.”
“Save who?”
Emily jumped at the voice behind her. She turned and saw Tom and Alexis standing at the entrance to the cave. Alexis’s tail with swishing with annoyance and she had bed head. “Yes, Emily, who do you wish to help?”
“Tom, Alexis,” Emily said awkwardly. “I’m sorry, did we wake you?”
“You two could wake the dead with your loud voices,” Alexis said.
Tom padded closer. “What are you up to? More late-night trips?”
Emily looked at Pegasus, and the stallion nodded. “Can we go back inside? We have something important to tell you.”
• • •
When Emily explained what they’d discovered in Urania’s well, Tom started to pace the confines of the cave. “How could the CRU know about them?”
“That’s my point,” Emily said. “They couldn’t. The time line changed. Once I destroyed the weapon, a kind of reset button was pushed and everything we went through was erased, just like Agent B said would happen. Olympus wasn’t destroyed, and all the Olympians didn’t die. It never happened because we stopped it by destroying the weapon in the past.”
Alexis was shaking her head. “I have heard this story told and even seen the Pegasus pendant around your neck. I also know your dog, Mike, appeared out of nowhere. But it is still very difficult to understand.”
“That’s why time travel is so messed up,” Tom said. “One little change in the past can have a major impact on the future. It could be altered completely and the people of the future would never know it.”
“I still don’t understand,” Alexis said. “How?”
Tom stopped before her. “Let’s say I went back in time and I met your grandfather on the day he was supposed to meet your grandmother. But because I was there, they didn’t meet. Because they didn’t meet, they didn’t get married. Then, because they didn’t get married, your mother was never born. Because your mother was never born, she couldn’t meet your father. Then you couldn’t be born either. So suddenly you, Alexis, would vanish from the future. No one here would ever notice because for them you never existed. But for me, as the time traveler, I knew you did. Everything would be ruined because I went back into the past and distracted your grandfather from meeting your grandmother.”
Alexis looked at Emily. “Did that happen?”
Emily nodded. “We did go into the past. But the changes we made were good. They protected this future by destroying a weapon that was destroying it. I remember the other time line, but everyone else doesn’t.” She looked at Tom. “But I thought it was all over until I saw Agent B and Stella in the cells. Somehow the CRU must know about it.”
“But that’s impossible!” Tom insisted.
Pegasus whinnied and nickered. He shook his head and snorted.
Emily and Tom both looked at Alexis to translate. “Pegasus is suggesting that perhaps one of the early Titans may have been captured by the CRU and they have extracted information from them.”
Emily looked at Pegasus. “How? When?”
Once more the stallion whinnied.
“During the recent conflict on Earth at the Diamond Head volcano,” Alexis translated. “Many of the older Titans were at that battle. Perhaps one was wounded and captured. But when the Xan sent everyone home, they missed that Titan, who was left on Earth in the hands of the CRU.”
It made a lot of sense. “So it could be a Titan has been tortured into telling the history?” Emily asked.
The stallion nodded.
“This isn’t good,” Tom said. “Their facility in London is the most secure.”
“I remember you saying Area 51 was their most secure,” Alexis said.
“It was, for the United States. But the London unit makes Area 51 look small. There are CRU facilities all around the world, and then there are super-facilities. I never went to that London one. The CRU tends to keep their agents in their home country. That way we don’t stand out.”
“Jupiter must be told,” Alexis said.
“No!” Emily and Tom said as one. Tom finished. “We’re only just getting over the big blowup in Hawaii. I think if poor old Jupiter were to hear the name ‘CRU’ one more time, he might blow a gasket.”
“Or get so angry he destroys Earth. Remember, he almost did when he first found out about the clones,” Emily suggested. “He was going to turn the Solar Stream on Earth back then.”
Pegasus nickered, and Alexis shook her head. “Please, be reasonable. It is too dangerous for you.”
Emily stroked the stallion’s neck, certain she knew what he’d just said. “We both want to go.” Emily paused. “Alexis, you don’t know Agent B, but he was very much like Tom. Once we got him away from the CRU, he turned out to be a decent, wonderful man.”
“Careful, Emily,” Tom said. “It sounds like you have a bit of a crush on him. Those emotions won’t help you.”
Emily blushed. “No, I don’t. It wasn’t like that. But I do care for him. He was a really good friend, and he helped me when Pegs died. . . .” Emily looked at Pegasus. “That was the worst, watching you die. But he was there for me. . . .” She stopped. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Emily ran into her bed cave and opened her personal box. Inside were the journals from their journey into the past, which had been found in the rubble of the palace. Emily picked up Agent B’s and ran back into the room. “I haven’t let a lot of people see this. It’s too personal. But I think you should. This is Agent B’s journal. He wrote this message right before the biggest battle with the Titans on Titus.” She opened the journal to the last entry and started to read aloud.
My dear Emily, if you are reading this and I am alive, shame on you! Close the book right now and put it away. . . .
But if you are reading this because I am dead, please, keep going. . . .
Emily Jacobs, you are perhaps the most stubborn girl I have ever met. You can be irritating beyond measure, irrational, and infuriating. But you are also one of the most loyal and caring people I have had the pleasure to get to know.
We have fought side by side for months now. We have suffered together, bled together, and at times we’ve even laughed together.
As we are facing our toughest challenge yet, I have the strangest feeling I won’t survive it. If I don’t, if it’s true that I am dead, I beg you, please find me in London. Find me and get me away from the CRU.
Let me know you again. Let me call you and Pegasus, Joel, the Olympians, and that mangy mutt Mike my friends. Please, Emily, find me and save me from myself.
Yours,
Benedict Richard Williams
“See,” Emily said to Tom. “He changed, just like you did. He didn’t want to be a CRU agent anymore. Before we went into one of the final battles, he gave me his journal and made me promise that if we won and time reset, I would find him. He even wanted me to kidnap him and bring him here or to Xanadu to read his journal. He’s put all kinds of messages to himself in it. He really wanted to change.
“But now that I’ve seen he’s locked away and they’re hurting him, I can’t let it go. I have to save him. I have to save them all—Frankie, Earl, and Stella. I owe them that. We all do.”
Tom sighed heavily and looked back at Alexis. “Emily and Pegasus are right. They must go back to find Agent B. We must know who told the CRU about the other time line.”
“But that is madness,” Alexis said. “He is just one man.”
“It’s more than that,” Tom insisted. “And not just because of a promise made.” He shook his head, and his tail flicked. “I am sick and tired of the CRU and their obsession with Olympus. But there is no mistaking that something is up. Whether they’ve captured a Titan or found out some other obscure way, they’re not going to stop coming after us.”
Pegasus nodded and whinnied.
“You cannot!” Alexis insisted.
“What?” Emily asked.
“He says he wants to take on the CRU and finish them once and for all.”
Tom padded up to Pegasus. “It would be a nice dream, my friend. But I’m afraid they are far too big and powerful for that. What we can do is get those people away from them. Once they’re safe, we declare Earth a quarantine world. Meaning no one ever goes back there again.”
“So what do we do now?” Alexis asked. “And, Tom, my beloved, you get any thought of going back with them out of your head. Looking as you do now, there is no way you can hide what you are. You will do their mission more harm than good.”
Tom dropped his head. “I know. I’d be a liability to you. But what I can do is work as your support team. I’ll tell you what you need to know about the super-facility in London.”
“I assume you will be taking Joel and Paelen with you,” Alexis said.
This had been spinning around in Emily’s mind from the moment she’d seen Agent B in the cell and knew she’d be going back to Earth. “No,” she finally said.
“What?” Tom cried. “But you four are a team! You can’t go without them. Together you are unstoppable.”
Pegasus whinnied and nodded his head.
Emily sighed sadly. “We were a team, but not now. Joel spends all this time hiding in Vulcan’s forge and won’t even look at me. Paelen, well, you’ve seen him. He’s in love. He won’t go without Lorin, but there’s no way I’m taking her on this mission.”
“Emily, listen to me,” Alexis said. “Be reasonable. You are a determined person, and I have seen you in action. I know what you can achieve. But you have changed. It wounds me to say this, but if you and Pegasus try to go on your own, you will fail. And in doing so, you will hand yourselves over to the CRU.”
“We’re not going alone,” Emily said as the stroked Pegasus’s warm, muscled neck. “Riza has been with me from the beginning. She cares about Agent B and the others as much as I do. When she learns what’s happened, Pegasus and I won’t be going against the CRU alone. We’ll have one of the most powerful beings in the universe with us. We’ll have a Xan on our team.”
3
DURING THE LONG OLYMPIAN NIGHT, Tom coached Emily and Pegasus on some of the things they might encounter on their journey to London. Though he’d never been to the CRU super-facility, he had visited the city several times.
“It’s very much like New York,” he said. “Just as congested and just as few places to hide. So get in, extract your targets, and get out again.”
Emily listened to every word, and as he spoke, she heard disturbing echoes of the CRU agent he used to be. Suddenly this wasn’t Tom the Sphinx talking; it was Agent T, speaking about targets and extractions instead of friends and rescue.
“I understand,” Emily said.
While they spoke, Alexis packed two large sacks of ambrosia cakes and bottles of nectar for the long journey through the Solar Stream to Xanadu. She brought the bags to Pegasus and draped them across his neck like saddlebags.
Tom looked out the cave. “All right, it won’t be long before dawn, so you’d better get moving.” His voice became even more serious. “Emily, listen to me. I want you to promise me, on your word, that if Riza doesn’t go with you, you won’t go alone. Come back here and we’ll figure something out. But you can’t take on the CRU alone.”
“I promise,” she said.
“You too, Pegasus,” Alexis said. “No reckless adventures, do you understand me? Emily is still the Flame of Olympus, and we need her.” Her voice softened. “And we love you both very much, so please, do not do anything foolish.”
Pegasus nickered, and Emily agreed. “We won’t.” She had changed into her jeans and a sweatshirt. She tied her long black hair back in a ponytail and put her personal items, including the Xan food pouch, in the pack she pulled onto her back. She decided to leave Agent B’s journal in her box. She would bring the agent to the journal, not the journal to the agent.
“Now, you’ve still got plenty of powers left,” Tom said. “Don’t be afraid to use them. You know the agents you’re going against won’t hesitate to use their weapons against you.” He paused. “I’m deadly serious, Emily. You’re different now. You have blood and you have a body—it’s Olympian, meaning it’s much stronger and tougher, but it still can be hurt. Worse, if they catch you, there is nothing stopping them from cloning you and Pegasus again. Just remember what happened at Area 51.”
Mention of the cloning sent a shiver down Emily’s spine. “I’ll be extra careful, I promise. But with Riza with me, hopefully we’ll pop in and then out again before the CRU knew what hit them. We’ll be back in no time.”
Tom nodded. “Now, I’ll tell your father that you and Pegasus have gone to spend some time with Riza. I’m sure he’ll understand. But listen to me. If you are gone more than two days, I will have to tell him. Then no doubt we’ll all be coming after you.”
Emily nodded. “We understand. But can you make it three days? Remember how long it takes to get to Xanadu through the Solar Stream. That’s almost a day right there.”
When it was agreed, Tom and Alexis escorted them out of the cave. Tom rose on his hind legs and put his large paws around her. “You mean everything to me, Emily. Come back safe.”
Emily hugged him back. “We will. I promise.”
Next it was Alexis’s turn, and when she embraced Emily, she whispered in her ear, “I am going to keep you to that promise, Emily. Who else will babysit for us?”
Emily inhaled sharply. “Babysit? Are you . . . ?”
The beautiful Sphinx nodded. “I am. So you must come back to us.”
Pegasus whinnied in excitement and bobbed his head.
Emily was filled with joy for the two Sphinxes and
hugged Alexis tightly. “That’s wonderful news! Just you wait. We’ll be right back. Then I can plan your baby shower.”
With her heart lightened, Emily climbed up onto the stallion’s back. She waved and called good-bye. Just before Pegasus took off, she heard Alexis ask Tom, “What is a baby shower?”
• • •
Emily held on to Pegasus’s mane as they traveled through the portal between worlds, the blazing light of the Solar Stream whooshing around them. This was one time Emily missed her Xan powers. She could have made this journey in seconds. But with the Solar Stream, it was long and loud, and she couldn’t speak with Pegasus. Being left to her own thoughts, she recalled Tom’s words that she, Joel, and Paelen were a team.
It hurt to realize that was gone. Joel hadn’t actually said he didn’t care for her anymore, but his actions spoke louder than words. It had been at least three days since she’d seen him or Pegasus’s brother, the winged boar, Chrysaor.
She had tried to visit him several times, but he always made excuses why he couldn’t see her.
What had gone wrong? Did her appearance really matter so much? Could Joel really be so shallow? The more she thought about it, the more it hurt. The more it hurt, the angrier she became. It wasn’t her fault she’d physically changed. Or was it something else entirely? Was Joel finally tired of all the adventures?
Then there was Paelen—her sweet misfit friend who could always make her smile with his crooked grin. Part of her missed him most. He was always up to mischief, always finding ways to make her laugh. Now he was spending all his time with Lorin. She actually felt sorry for him. Teaching the wild Titan was supposed to be her job. But after everything they’d been through, she and Lorin just couldn’t get along. It was Paelen who was left to take over Lorin’s education. To make it easier for him, Emily had backed off—but she missed him.
Emily forced herself out of her dark thoughts. Instead she opened the bag Alexis had packed for them and pulled out a few ambrosia cakes. She leaned forward and offered one to Pegasus. Emily smiled as the stallion took the cake gently and nodded his gratitude. Eating her own portion, Emily focused on what lay ahead.